Insurance

Because you never know!

Living and working here in Thailand has so many benefits – incredible food, great diving, wonderful people and tropical weather. It really is home to us and we appreciate the opportunity. some things are different and take some getting used to. Driving on the wrong side of the road (for some of us), unusually bugs, spicy food and medical care. These can all combine to cause some REAL headaches! Simple fall on your scooter can lead to infection or that spicy foods gives you a case of the Phuket two-step and you get dehydrated.

While it might be that basic medical care is very inexpensive here and one might think there is little need for insurance – you could not be more wrong. The BASIC health care is cheap – that which is available in the government hospitals and clinics. For the very good, efficient healthcare – you need to visit a private hospital. There you will find not only some of the best healthcare in the world – but also incredible service and standards. However – anything more than a few nights in hospital gets expensive fast and the medical bills associated with longer stays can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Please make travel insurance a part of your planning — don’t leave home without it … we certainly don’t. We live here and have seen many accidents of all sorts. We speak from personal experience – insurance is there for when you least expect it!

Who we recommend

When we travel (you could say we never stopped), we use only one provider for all of our travel insurance needs — World Nomads. Their policies are designed with independent, adventurous travelers in mind and we believe the coverage they offer is a good deal for the price — we wouldn’t use them otherwise! As an added bonus, being an entirely web-based undertaking, it’s easy to buy insurance, make a claim and even extend a policy online — great news if you’re having such a terrific trip you’ve decided to extend your trip.

While World Nomads covers you for almost all sensible activities (for some reason Base jumping is not covered?) they do cover for diving accidents. Our in-house Dive Medic speaks from experience in saying the Nomads offer some of the best coverage available.

At the end of the day, buying travel insurance is a personal decision. The vast majority of travelers will have trouble-free trips through Thailand and Southeast Asia — after all it is generally a very safe region to travel in. However, accidents do happen and while having insurance won’t just make the problems go away, it does make them easier to deal with — often for as little as a couple of dollars a day.

World Nomads also donates a portion of their proceeds to extremely worthy causes. You can opt in to donating just a dollar a day and taking care of some really worthy causes! Read More about their projects

Please examine all Travel Insurance Carefully!

While you’re battling your way through the small print, keep in mind the following potential pitfalls.

Dangerous activitiesMany insurers consider motorcycling, diving, parachuting, hot-air ballooning and many other largely safe activities as hugely dangerous pursuits. Falling off your motorbike, breaking your arm and spending a few days in hospital will only be more painful if your insurer tells you the bill is all yours. This is extremely important for Scuba Diving – many policies EXCLUDE diving.

Country exclusionsNo point in having travel insurance for your trip to Laos if it doesn’t cover Laos.

Working exclusions
Will you be working during your trip? If so, check that pouring those drinks in a bar on Ko Phi Phi won’t void your travel insurance.

Maximum amount per item
You don’t want your $1,500 camera stolen only to find out your insurer has a maximum payout per item of $250.

Here are a few things to consider when choosing your insurance to make sure that you will be covered on your adventure:

Cancellation: It’s no fun if you fall ill before you leave and can not go on your trip. To claim though, you have to buy your insurance policy when you buy your trip. Not all insurance policies cover cancellation, so please read the policy wording relevant to you carefully

Lost or Stolen Gear: most travel insurance policies have a per-item value limit – make sure its high enough to cover your gear or choose a policy that allows you to increase the limit.

Medical expenses over and above evacuation: check that your cover includes emergency treatment while away and transport to bring you home – remembering that insurance providers will usually insist on getting you home as soon as you are fit enough to travel.

Adventurous Activities: look carefully at what your policy covers – you may find that you are not covered to do all of the adventurous activities that you are planning while you’re away.

Personal Liability: Accidents happen. If it’s found to be your fault and someone decides to sue you, you want to be covered.

Extend your cover – Anytime
Had a change of travel plans? Unlike other policies, World Nomads allows you to extend your policy indefinitely. Because it’s online, you can do it 24/7 from anywhere in the world.